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Vintage Tanker Desk Makeover

August 20, 2015

I've been on the hunt for a desk for my craft room. I found a vintage tanker desk for $30 at a local thrift store and decided to bring it home with me.

It was big and sturdy with very functional drawers, including a filing drawer that I'm going to use to sort my paper scraps. But it screamed government office. So I gave it a makeover. I'm going to write up a separate blog post entitled "How Not To Spray Paint" because wow. I screwed up royally on this desk... not once, but TWICE! Sigh.

I used Rustoleum American Accents 2x Ultra Cover spray paint (affiliate link). It's got a great gold color and is super shiny.

Would I recommend painting a giant metal desk with metallic gold spray paint? No. It's a huge pain to get even coverage because of the shiny flakes in the paint. And it shows fingerprints like nobody's business.

BUT...

I do love how my desk turned out!

It's now a golden gem in my craft room! I decided to leave the original faux wood laminate top because I just didn't think anything else I did would hold up to as much wear and tear as this desk is going to get.

I also painted a vintage metal chair to match. It was a hand-me-down that my mom bought at a yard sale. $8 I think? I loved the chair so much as it was that I was hesitant to paint it. Guess what? I love it even more now that it's gold!

The cow print pillow... in love! Okay, confession. I haven't actually sewn it yet. It's just wrapped around the pillow form for pics. BUT I do love it and once I get my sewing stuff all set up, I'm totally making it official with this cutie pie.

3 comments:

I just did my own Tanker redo for my sewing room. I chose Champagne as the color and splurged and bought an air gun and auto paint. That desk will last way past my lifetime and my 3' self healing mat fits on one corner of it! I love the gold with the silver handles! Super beautiful and it's nice to be able to say "I did it"! I did have to have some muscle help since the Tanker weighs literally, A TON! I also love, LOVE the chair. i am on he hunt for one like that now that my desk project is complete.